Game of Thrones Costume Designer Michele Clapton Talks Season 7

Just like everything else on Game of Thrones, there's way more than meets the eye when it comes to the costumes. Designer Michele Clapton has made a game of embedding clues about the characters' story arcs into their clothes, from the coat which signifies a major life change for Daenerys to the symbolism behind when Jon Snow chooses to wear his cape. This season, some fans are even theorizing that Bran and the Night King are the same person due to the similarities in their clothing, though Clapton, for the record, calls that merely "coincidental." Below, the three-time Emmy-winning costume designer (she's currently nominated for her exceptional work on The Crown) breaks down her thought process for Season 7 and hints at what's coming in tonight's finale.

The women of Game of Thrones are wearing their own kind of armor this season.

"There’s war coming. Everything’s quite muted and quite bleak. I think it’s important for the four women left to have a very strong—it’s not masculine, there’s still a femininity to it—but there’s a sort of hardening. Each one of them has been through such a journey, so I tried to reflect that in their costumes. For instance, Sansa: she’s been abused, raped, and had the most horrific things happen to her, so I liked the idea that she’s encased in her costume. No one is gonna get into her, no one is gonna get near her. It is an armor. She’s laced and then she has the belt, which I really particularly like, which goes up and around her body. Everything is really controlled. I’ve also shortened the length of the dresses on Cersei and Sansa because I want there to be a practicality. The way the women are arriving in the north, they’re beginning to fight and realize they have to be equal. They have to fight for survival. I had to get rid of all the unnecessary. With Dany, the colors have gotten darker but there is a red creeping in, her house color. Slowly we’re trying to move them into their own individual looks. It’s practical. It’s war. The time isn’t for pretty dresses. Jewelry isn’t worn to be attractive. It’s worn to represent your house or your stature or your intent. This is the direction I have to go in now."

"It’s war. The time isn’t for pretty dresses."

Dany and Sansa's accessories echo each other—and also come from unexpected sources.

"We see them facing each other, really. We see the dynamics of this. It’s funny because it comes from different backgrounds. For Sansa, the chain that she wears, the needle on the end represents her Needle, her way of fighting back. It’s a small version of the Needle Arya has. But the chain in a weird way is an influence from Littlefinger. He always used to wear accouterments for his job chained to his coat on a fine chain, and then a mockingbird sigil at his neck. So I was trying to collate all the people who influenced her—whether she likes them or not. There’s a real formality about her chain and the [way] the circle is positioned and looped. That’s very much Littlefinger.

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"With Dany, she is trying to impress that she is the queen in ranking but she can’t wear a crown, so it’s just a huge statement piece of intent—it’s a chain of intent. Visually they play off each other. Whereas Cersei has a look and I think we’ll see in Episode 7 there’s a definite shift. Hopefully by the end of this season there will be three very strong women, and obviously Arya as well. Arya has her own look, adapted from Winterfell, but the cut of her cape is quite different from the old Winterfell stuff, so that’s something which is very much her look that she brought with her. By the end of this season we’ll have three or four very distinct looks which will then move forward."

Many of the characters' costumes echo their deceased family members from seasons past—Sansa nods to Catelyn, Arya to Ned, and Daenerys has started styling herself after her older brother, Viserys. This might be a subtle reference to where they're going next.

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"I think there is a cyclical movement, but also I think by introducing certain elements, like with Sansa and Littlefinger and part of her mother’s elements, it’s still adapted into her—she wears the fur on her shoulders and the cross-strap from Ned, and Arya has adopted some of Ned’s shapes, but again she’s brought her own take on it as well, because she’s got elements of her life that she’s had so far. With Dany, yes, maybe we’re foretelling, maybe we’re giving a direction, it’s all part of storytelling—we want to move it forward, we want to question where they’re going, we want to almost provoke that. Are they gonna make the same mistakes? And I think even with the storytelling this season, you begin to wonder: which way is Sansa going? Is she gonna make a mistake? Is she gonna go the wrong way? Is she gonna listen to Littlefinger? Is she gonna listen to her sister? I quite like that heightening. It’s slightly confusing which way she’ll go. With Cersei, I think she started the season one way and she’ll finish in a different way, but I think there’s a sense of her father probably more than anyone else, in the cuts and the fabrics she chooses to use. Again, I think that’s been part of the process. I obviously have an end goal and I’m designing Season 8 now, and I planned where we’re going in Season 7 in my head."

Every design choice is intentional.

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"[With Dany] I get really frustrated sometimes when people say, ‘but why haven't you done it in the [Targaryen house colors] red and black?’ Well, give me a chance to get there. If I put her in red and black in Season 2, where do we go from there? It’s a story that arcs over eight seasons. It takes time to tell that story, and people get very frustrated, like, 'why aren’t you doing that now?!’ Because where do we go then? It’s a story arc and we can usually make people think it’s going one way. It’s all part of the design process, to interpret and question. You think, well, Dany’s going this way, but what does that mean? The last thing you ever imagined until Season 2, 3 is that she’d ever be referencing her brother, but you actually see the Unsullied are also in the shape. So who is she referencing? We try to have fun and create this questioning. It would be wrong if I put them in pretty dresses. I tried to make sense of why I’m doing each thing."

Keep an eye out for subtle moments in tonight's season finale.

"I think we see people playing at being the most powerful in their own way. I think they interpret their way of appearing powerful at this meeting."

Jon's cape wasn't the only big costume conversation this season.

"I get very annoyed when people can’t cover their heads when they’re going North of the Wall. I’m going, ‘The first thing you would do is cover your heads!’ I don’t understand why. Sure, you see the characters, whatever. I’m always trying to come up with different solutions and different hats and different ways of covering but it’s difficult. I like things to make sense and when I can’t actually make it make sense, I find that really hard. Look at all that fur on their bodies and nothing on their heads! That’s always a big discussion, which I usually lose. Which is fine.

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"The white coat was quite a big decision. It’s such a departure but I think David and Dan luckily trust me enough. They were like, ‘White? You think that’s gonna work?’ and I was like ‘yes, it’s really, really, really gonna work.’ They were nervous it would be too much of a statement but I thought it needed that. It’s also incredibly practical. If you’re riding a dragon north of the wall, look at what the wildlings wear. Look at what everyone who knows the area wears. In a way, this is Dany’s wildling coat. It’s a functional piece. They loved it in the end but sometimes you have to work through ideas and make sure you all understand it."

Similarities between Bran and the Night King's costumes are coincidental.

"There wasn’t a plan there."

Leaving for part of Season 6 was bittersweet for Clapton.

"I think it was good to leave for a few episodes. It was quite nice to step back and then step back in, although I’m sad I didn’t do them, in a funny way, I think it benefitted from a break, and to reassess and re-look at everything."

Julie KosinDirector of Audience Strategy & EntertainmentJulie Kosin is the director of audience strategy and entertainment at HarpersBAZAAR.com, where she runs the news team and oversees all things movies, TV, books, music, and art, from trawling Netflix for a worthy binge to endorsing your next book club pick.

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